David Hicks Lillard, Sr.

David Hicks Lillard, Sr., 93, of Fayette County departed this life Thursday evening, March 30, 2023, at Baptist Hospital Memphis. He was born the son of Luther Lee Lillard and Mabel Hicks Lillard on November 15, 1929, at the home of his maternal grandparents, Hughley Alexander Hicks and Eugenia Jones Hicks, at 423 N. Washington Street in Clinton, Kentucky, located in Hickman County.

Growing up as the son of a woman who served as a deputy sheriff and business owner in the 1930s and 40s, he learned the value of hard work early on the family farm and family trucking business. As a teenager during World War II, he drove freight trucks going as far north as Chicago and as far south as New Orleans for his mother’s trucking company.

David graduated from Central High School in Clinton, and received his pre- pharmacy education at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. He graduated in 1951 from Pharmacy School at the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis, becoming a registered pharmacist.

Prior to beginning a pioneering pharmacy and business career, David married Betty Gayle McKay of Keiser, Arkansas, in August 1952 and entered military service. He joined the U.S. Army and graduated from Officers Candidate School at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. He served stateside at Ft. Rucker, Alabama and Brooke Army Medical Center in Houston, Texas, during the Korean War era, and was honorably discharged in 1954.

After his military service, David returned to Memphis and worked as a pharmacist for several drug store owners. He then launched what would become a visionary business venture when he purchased his first retail drug store in late 1955, going on to open several more drug stores. He implemented various innovations in his pharmacy operations, including the first computer in a retail drug store in Tennessee in the early 1970s. In 1974, he sold his retail stores, expanding the business to provide pharmacy services to nursing homes and proprietary hospitals. When he sold his pharmacy service business in 1987 it was the largest privately owned servicer of nursing homes and hospitals in Tennessee. He later founded Pharmacy Systems Corporation, which provided computer programming for pharmacy operations.

David semi-retired in the late 1980s to his property in Fayette County, farmed sod grass and became active in the community. He was an active member of Pleasant’s Christian Church in the Macon Community of Fayette County. In 2002 he was elected County Commissioner, and served until August 2022, when he fully retired.

He is predeceased by his son, Todd Hampton Lillard, his older brother, Hampton Lillard, his son-in-law John B. Bates and a sister who died in infancy, Louisa Lillard. He is survived by his younger brother, Col. Joseph K. Lillard, U.S. Army (retired), of Clarkston, WA, his son David H. Lillard, Jr. and daughter Robin Lillard Bates, both of Fayette County. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Scott Lillard, Brooke Lillard and Juliana Bates and Elise Bates Caldwell and three great grandchildren.

Funeral Services for Mr. Lillard were held at 2 P.M. Thursday, April 6, 2023 at the Peebles West Funeral Chapel at Oakland.

In lieu of flowers, please donate in David’s memory to the Fayette County Animal Rescue, where he loved to adopt his canine best friends. The address is P.O. Box 44, Rossville, TN 38066.